Ministry of Health Issues Regulations for the Implementation of Electronic Medical Records

The government through the Ministry of Health has officially issued a new regulation to organize electronic medical records (RME) in health care facilities (fasyankes). This regulation is contained in PMK No. 24 of 2022 concerning Medical Records which is an amendment and update from the previous regulation PMK No. 269 ​​Year 2008.

In a press conference on Friday (9/9), the Ministry of Health's Chief Digital Transformation Office (DTO) Setiaji describes a number of important points contained in this RME regulation. Among them, the implementation of RME includes eight activities starting from patient registration, filling out clinical information, storing, to transferring medical records.

In addition, this regulation also details articles relating to ownership and contents of patient medical records, security and protection of personal data, to release. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health is given the authority to process patient health data.

Setiaji revealed that this regulation will provide significant support for digital transformation roadmap and the Satu Sehat platform which is being realized by the government. In addition, this regulation will also provide significant support for the development of healthtech innovation.

It should be noted, as stated in article 3, health facilities are required to implement RME, including services Telemedicine by health facilities. Then, the implementation of this RME must also be integrated into the Satu Sehat platform. The government provides a transition period for health facilities until the end of 2023.

Furthermore, Setiaji said that the implementation of RME for health facilities in the regions will be carried out in stages considering the readiness of human resources, infrastructure, and work culture that are different from those in urban areas.

"Actually, the [health facilities] that are ready are not only in the city, but also in the regions and have been integrated. They are just waiting for regulations. digital maturity index. We will use this to implement this policy, which one needs to be improved first," he explained.

He has also coordinated with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to ensure that internet infrastructure can be adequate for this transformation effort.

From the aspect of data protection, Setiaji emphasized that this is an important aspect that is encouraged, not only within the Ministry of Health, but also the system belonging to the health facilities. He said that his party was doing piloting in a hospital related to guidelines for securing data, including medical records. In fact, it plans to use technology blockchain to provide stronger data protection.

"Later on, electronic medical records can also be accessed through the PeduliLindung application because it has been widely used by the Indonesian people. This is at the same time continuing the government's commitment that PeduliLindungi is not only for Covid-19," he added.

Transformation roadmap

The government's movement to realize this transformation actually only started last year when it published a road map (The roadmap) transformation and digitization of the Indonesian health sector in the period 2021-2024. There are three main agendas that are government priorities, namely integration and development of data systems, service applications, and ecosystems in the health technology sector.healthtech).

Setiaji who was appointed to lead this transformation said that electronic medical records are a backbone of all the transformations to be carried out. Without it, it will be difficult for health facilities to exchange integrated health data and information.

Moreover, he mentioned that there are 400 applications in the health sector, 70 applications for health centers, and 50 applications for hospitals, each of which has a different data format.

"One of the big challenges is that every hospital or other health facility has its own data format. For example, the simplest variable, there is a gender format called L/P, there is also P/W. Well, "P" means "Male". " or "Female"?" Setiaji said in an interview with DailySocial.id some time ago.

Most recently, the government has also released Indonesia Health Services (IHS) in mid-July 2022 which will be the center of the integration of health services in Indonesia. IHS has embedded standard specifications and mechanisms in the process of exchanging information, both business, data, technical, and security.